A good Rain & a great Light Show.

Thursday, April 5^th, 2018 to Monday, 9^th April; 

Cottonwood Canyon in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

There is some interesting wildlife around my camp, if you notice the small things.  There is a small lizard that comes out first thing in the morning to Sun himself near my front tire, then goes off, no doubt to do lizardy things.  There is a larger lizard of a different type that hangs out near a certain bunch of bushes.  He has larger more rough looking scales.  There are several beetles that wander around in the morning, leaving a trail in the fine sand that you can follow.  Before the wind gets up and blows them away, there are trails of small rodents, two or three different kinds, that you can follow about and see what they might have been up to during the night.  Then there is the Rock Squirrel that takes great interest in my morning ablutions, observing me from his perch high on the tip of a slab of rock … dirty sod.  Then there is something that ejects little geysers of sand about an inch and a half into the air, first thing in the morning.  There does seem to be a lair of some sort there, but it is not the funnel form of an ant lion's den, which was my first thought, and when I probed with a grass stem into one of these, I got no response so it will remain a mystery.

My Cottonwood Canyon Campsite.

Near Hackberry Canyon Trailhead.

The hogbacks of Dakota Sandstone March north from here, to the east of the road and several miles further on the road winds through them so that they are then to the west.  Before I passed through I stopped and walked between two of them to see if the oyster-beds continued this far … they did, and so did the coal seem immediately below.  But when I paused the car on the road when I did pass through on the road, there was no sign of them, but the next hogbacks to the north showed a couple of outcroppings of them.  I assume that they had been eroded or buried beneath the Tropic Shale, that now I am driving on, that lies above the oyster-beds in this sequence of rock layers.

More Oysters.

ß Seam of Coal with the outcrops of the Oyster beds rising to the left; this is on the east side of one of the hogbacks; the strata here is draped over the Kaibab Monocline.

The brown Dakota Sandstone was deposited by ancient river systems flowing eastwards from uplands to the west in what is now western Utah and Nevada, 95 million years ago.  The coal layer above represents swampy conditions, as a shallow sea to the east began to encroach.  Later the oyster-beds were laid down in brackish water.  Later still, the Tropic Shale was laid down in the aforementioned encroaching shallow sea, when the coastline moved farther west.  So interesting!  All this geology info has been gleaned from the “Geology Road Guide, Cottonwood Canyon, Grand Staircase Escalante,” by Janice Gillespie with Christa Sadler, published by the Glen Canyon Natural History Association, 2014.  I got my copy from the visitors center at the Navajo Bridge near Lee's Ferry, which was good since the BLM Office, on Hwy 89 near the south entrance to Cottonwood Wash, doesn't stock it, so far … go figure!

Looking south from the way I came,
with a good view of the line of Hogbacks.

Look!  It’s Santa Claus by the roadside!!
Must be hitchin’ a ride … wonder where Rudolph & the lads are?

Here at Cottonwood Narrows
the strata gets stretched and jumbled …
maybe Santa’s here to sort it out.

I took another walk through the slot canyon of Cottonwood Narrows, which is entirely through Navajo Sandstone.  This rock is earlier than the Dakota Sandstone, being early Jurassic, about 185 million years old, and are the petrified remains of a vast dune field like the Sahara, which stretched from present day northern Arizona to southern Wyoming.  Much of the sand that makes up the Navajo Sandstone comes from the ancient Appalachian Mountains, washed down to the west in river systems, and then blown south from there to form the dunes.  Back in Arches National Park, remember I included a photo of the “petrified dunes” there, which were also the Navajo Sandstone.  Up in Dinosaur National Monument, the Nugget Sandstone correlates with this Navajo Sandstone down here in southern Utah, i.e. same age, same dune field.  This walk was dry shod, and good thing to, as if there is water flowing in this slot canyon you probably don't want to be here … think flash flood!

At the end of this side canyon …

… you come to this 200’ 

wall, 

which must be quite 

a waterfall 

during a heavy 

rain; 

wouldn’t want to be 

here then.

All week I have been aware of a 20% possibility of rain on Saturday night, and so after my walk through the Navajo Sandstone slot canyon, I proceeded to Grosvenor Arch, for a brief photo stop.  I continued on that side-road (440), for several miles over two high ridges and onto the Kaiparowits Plateau section of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  Here I am alone as I have ever been.  With a 20% chance of rain I really didn't think I would receive any, but … just after I got myself squared away for the night, and was about to begin preparing supper, the rain swept in from the west.  It lasted for an hour and a half, of sometimes heavy, but not tropical, downpour, with wind.  The light faded, and I decided on a cold supper of a packet of smoked salmon, avocado, cheese, olives on Italian herb crackers … excellent!

Still in the slot canyon,
but it’s widened out here.

The rain had stopped and the stars were in evidence throughout much of the sky, and so I broke out the stove to heat up water for me hot chocolate.  As I began I noted a low band of cloud low in the west, but boy did that move fast!  Within twelve minutes it had expanded over most of the sky, save to the northeast where the stars shone brightly in the freshly washed atmosphere.  Amazingly I did not get rained on before the stove was packed away, and I settled into my hot drink.  And the rain did not begin again, at least at my camp.  But a great light show began from the west to the south and on to the southeast, as bands of storms moved along that track, while the stars continued to shine to the northeast.  Some of those lightening flashes seemed so close, they were so bright, but by timing the following thunder, the closest was about 6.5 miles away, while most were 8 to 13 miles away, and many were much farther, since no thunder was heard at all.  I continued watching until I deemed the storm system was pretty much past, with only remnants remaining, and most of the sky showed stars.  It had been a bit worrying since my camp is on a ridge, much lower than the two I had crossed to get here, but higher than anything for several miles to the east.  I will be staying here for the day (sunny, bright and breezy), to let the road in dry out … these roads are impossible when wet, they say, and those two ridges I crossed are quite steep … no sliding off into ravine for me!

Grosvenor Arch.

Rain is coming.

I can see Navajo Mountain off to the south from here, some sixty miles away.  I saw that from the northeast in Valley of the Gods, from the southeast on the Rim of Canyon de Chelly, and from the southwest at the Desert View Overlook in the Grand Canyon.  It is nice to be building a good mental map of the landscape of the American West.  When the Zombie apocalypse happens, I know I will be able to find my way around without the necessity for maps.

On the Kaiparowits Plateau after the rain … there is a smudge on the horizon just darker than the sky on the right of the photo … Navajo Mountain.

The ridges I crossed
to get to my rainy campsite.